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So, it seems like a whole load of embargos have been lifted on the PS4 with a whole load of reviews and coverage starting to come out. Nothing too much surprising as far as I've seen - the usual mixed bag of launch reviews. Knack seems to have had a savaging, but most stuff's getting a 6-7/10, with the odd 8. Out tomorrow in America.

Microsoft continue trying to get the trust of pretty much everyone back while the "bad" news keeps coming along with it - the latest being that launch titles (notably Call of Duty) aren't running at the previously expected 1080p. Everything's still officially embargoed review-wise, which perhaps isn't a great sign when PS4 game reviews started coming out a week or two ago.

Nintendo had one of their Nintendo Direct things yesterday. Doesn't seem to be much news from it - seems a bit crazy to try and announce anything on the day that's blanket PS4 coverage everywhere, but that's the Nintendo way.

Call of Duty 2013 sells about a trillion copies despite a resoundingly tepid response from reviewers who seem a little bored of the formula and see it as treading water while we move to the next generation of consoles.

Probably some other news, but I've been away for half the week. Take it away...

Wonder how much variety there'll be though. Given that I'm unlikely to invest in the story beyond this game and that having just played TR & Arkham Asylum, I'm not going to spend another 100 hours of my life tracking down feathers we'll see where it goes.

Some of the free running after Mirrors Edge is a joy though and whenever I spot an eagle, I do find myself needing to conquer the climb. Reaching the top of the Duomo was pretty awesome.

I was talking to my thinly-veiled lady friend last night about things I wanted and said that I want one of those, but they're too expensive and I don't have time to play. Cut price deals don't help though. I think Amazon have a bundle with Lego City and Lego Batman 2 for 249.99 which seems pretty reasonable value compared to where it was last year too.

Felt weird because the field of vision is so narrow compared to what I'm used to on Quake and the mouse didn't feel accurate at all and then I realised that I don't have the same childlike mindset I used to to invest in games anymore so just drove into people for a bit and then shot some people and quit

MS have done such an amazingly poor job at marketing this time round, despite having the stronger launch line up and greater utility on launch they've tried their hardest to detract the attention from this fact since the very beginning. They should've just let that fact do all the talking for them

I played a bit of the multiplayer and whilst it appears very little has changed from BF3 I actually found the general design of the multiplayer maps way better than 3 making 4 a far superior game with very little change..... I guess the little things really do matter.

The only game to come out recently with sound design as strong as BF was Tomb Raider which I also thought had remarkable sound.

BF3 multiplayer was the best FPS multiplayer I'd ever experienced. BF4 is better though, little things. Cover system for one makes a real difference and the maps are great. I can imagine it looks mind bending on PC as well.

but it's total lack of functionality out of the gate is pretty perplexing... I mean aside from Contrast & Resogun (the two free titles) which both look interesting you've got a box that can play a handful of mediocre games and that's about it... can't even play mp3's :/

I've played the first 2 hours of Contrast... it got middling reviews initially with Polygon giving it a 4 but who the fuck cares I think the game thus far is an imaginative wonder blending 2d and 3d gameplay seamlessly with a fantastic 1920's noir setting and stellar soundtrack. It's charming, funny and full of character... though it has some flaws without any question I actually think it's one of the better games this year so far.

Played BioShock Burial At Sea Part One)
Rapture look gorgeous, splicers are back and it's a bitesize chunk of the Bioshock experience. As part of the season pass it's fantastic value (2 - 3 hours total for part one and I'd assume part 2 is of similar length meaning you get 4 - 6 hours of additional game with a unique story & horde mode for £15) but bought separately can be seen as poor value at £22 for both parts. The story is strong and ends on an incredibly cliff hanger which makes me want the second installment as soon as possible. Still a fantastic world, still beautiful, still slightly lack luster combat (which makes up the 2nd half of the game) and an awesome encounter with a character from the first Bioshock make this a must buy for anyone who is a fan of the series (despite average reviews which seem harsh and unfair for the most part)

I really do enjoy that world, especially the appearance of a character that I would never expect to pop up but was pretty delighted when they did (a certain Norse monster with an equally nasty mum turned drunk barfly). Just need to wait for this next episode now!

Lego Marvel is pretty good brain dead game to play with a friend, smash bricks, smash Marvel villains made of bricks a Super Heroes made of bricks... I approve :) Nice to play a game with no challenge sometimes but I must say the Lego games have improved a lot since the last one I played (Lego Star Wars)

Cook, Serve, Delicious.. Just got upgraded to a 1star restaurant and now have a 5th prep counter... pretty leisurely game where you manage/run your own restaurant where you also do all the cooking/cleaning/artist renditions of burglars, very nice laid back stuff... that is until rush hour comes and start fucking up everyones orders D: then it becomes one hell of a task keeping up with everything... I just catered my first staff meeting with a Burgar/Pizza Party and kept on fucking up the pizzas by constantly putting Onions on instead of Olives :(.... it's one the best games ever! (no lie) + I get to serve beer in an office block and all the employers hate me for it (resorting in -5buzz)

A 'day' takes about 5mins and the Catering events last 1 minute, I play it when I'm waiting for something to cook, waiting for someone to turn up etc. etc. etc. it's a snack for me snack on when I don't feel like/have the time to play anything substantial only this also has progress so the is an intensive to stick with it :D

It's like console gamers *want* to spend all their time glumly fiddling with resolution and detail settings rather than actually playing the game, like us PC bellends. When you've got fixed hardware it's always a trade-off between resolution, FPS and detail. It's unrealistic and limiting on developers to expect 1080/60 in everything.

I don't remember too many people kicking up a stink over Shadow Of The Collossus and Majora's Mask. Those games barely broke 20fps.

late in the lifecycle it's generally accepted because the games have far better fidelity and complex AI/Physics/Mechanics compared to their launch game counter parts... I mean if Xbox 360 launch games Kameo & Perfect Dark Zero ran at 20fps I'd be concerned if I'd just thrown £400 there way for a new system.

Killer Instinct seems a bit unfinished, Dead Rising 3 a bit drab, the game where you get dragged along by a motorbike a bit shite.

Amongst all this, Nintendo does its usual thing of releasing one of its most high profile release (a new Zelda on 3DS) and it quietly goes about scoring lots of 9s and 10s. Their PR firm really REALLY ought to be fired...

My brother in law came over and laid siege to the 360 all Sunday, getting about a 1/4 of the way through Arkham Asylum. Was strangely enjoyable watching him play it for a while. Dived back into AC2 for a bit as well and am now out in some Tuscan village; reminded me of when I discovered that town in Xenoblade and it's down to you to get the town back to its former glory; oddly compelling. Also did some more of KOTOR on the iPad.

as I discovered it can only be done by exploiting glitches, which I don't get any pleasure or satisfaction from.

So I'm going for 12 days instead, which I think I'll be able to do as I'm currently in the final area on day 12, and I'm fairly confident I can complete the area in a single day.

I may try to trim it down to 11 days (no exploits) which I think is possible, but 1 day in particular will be incredibly tough (having to activate the blue onion, grow at least 30 blue pikmin, collect 11-12 pieces of fruit and defeat the boss all in a single day).

When I saw it originally, I thought it looked terrible but every subsequent trailer has looked great fun.

The only real gripe is, it's yet another game that seems to not use any of the Gamepad's functionality for more than a 3 second gimmick, which begs the question - do Nintendo have any ideas what to do with it?

Nintendo always have some kind of idea in mind with their hardware - Seems given the Nintendo Land thing it was asymmetric gameplay for the Wii U - which is a pretty good idea in principle but ignores the fact that people don't get around a single TV to play games the way they used to anymore.

It might be that they've not announced whatever game(s) they had in mind for it (Warioware seems likely to me?) or that like the 3DS screen they've decided that it turns out that they were wrong to put the emphasis on that and they end up focussing on things like the ability to play without using the TV instead.

but in the first few months of 2014 we are getting new Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Bayonetta 2 and what looks like Xenoblade 2. That suddenly looks like a strong set of games with Zelda, Marioworld, Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, ZombiU and Deus Ex added in there. What a difference a couple of games makes...

But yeah I really want Bayonetta 2, however I wont be purchasing a Wii U but will happily accept one as a gift. It certainly has the best line up of the new consoles thus far, but it needs to sell more.. isn't it selling 3,000 units per month in europe?